Atheism and Dating: How the hell does it work?

Ok, so I've been a solid, hardcore Atheist for almost 10 years now. Unfortunately, I live in a 3-mile-wide conservative town in the middle of the California desert, right along the Nevada border. Dating for me already seems to be difficult for me with the fact that I'm a huge nerd and very liberal. Add Atheism on top of that and the town will rally with pitchforks and torches!

I'm not a closet Atheist, but I don't run around town starting debates. People who know me can figure out I'm not Christian, that's for sure.

Actually, my main issue is not dating a Christian, but dating non-Christians. You see, anyone I've met in this town that isn't at least a little bit religious is going through that social rebellious stage. In my mid-20s, this is disturbing. It seems that not believing in a God to these people makes it ok for drug and alcohol abuse, unnecessary violence, racism... everything I'm still against even though I'm not some goody-two-shoes Christian.

Anyone else here know what I'm talking about?

Here I am, stuck on the fence. Christians don't want me because I don't believe in God and have tattoos, everyone else wants nothing to do with me because I still have morals.

Replies to This Discussion

I know how you feel! Though I really havent had any luck finding other Atheists, and I live in a good sized but still very religious town, the meere fact of me being an Atheist makes it hard, and to put the icing on the cake, I have 5 kids with Christians!
So now that I am single again, and have found other Atheists near me, kids scare them off! Men dont realize that I am not looking for someone to play "daddy" that is not at all what I want!! I love being the mom and the dad to my kids, Ive been doing it since day one!!
And well, any other guy here who is not extremely religious, are druggies, or have bad criminol records, and just not my type!
And, my house can scare people away. I have a collection of living dead dolls, Krypt Kiddies, gothic "barbies", Gargoyles, Dragons, Skulls, Reapers, all that good stuff, and the only holiday I care about is halloween! Makes it really tough!
Just curious, Colin, have you tried going to meetups.com?? thats where I found local or near by Atheists.
Myspace, and Facebook helps a little too.

meetups.com doesn't help. Facebook, either. I mean, I know everyone in town who has a facebook page. This is a small town. 3 miles wide, 4,500 population in a 15 mile radius. Nearest city is a 4 hour drive. I searched meetups.com with the subject blank and entered my zip code. The ONLY things that came up were in towns that are 7+ hours drive.

Thanks Eric, I'm glad you know what I meant. Though I believe "morals" are just a distinction between right or wrong, and no matter what god you follow, if any, there's some things most human beings would know is wrong.

There isn't a big difference.
Morality is conformity to rules of right conduct and the distinction between right and wrong.
I don't see religion mentioned in any of the definitions I looked up.
I consider myself to be a moral person, not because of any religion, but because I am a civilized human being. That said, your comment is interesting and made me wonder about it.
I think because we are so accustomed to having theists try to lay claim to all morality and imply it that it comes from some belief in a god. So I think we need to make open claims about being moral, or theists will deny us that.

I agree. I'm sure many people think atheists are in it for the lack of rules, just so we can do whatever we in. In actuality, this is very wrong, especially in my case. Ironic how I'd be considered a "better person" according to the Bible than most Christians I've met.